"My name is Gabriella Házi and I'm a flamenco dancer. Flamenco isn’t just about music or dance. It is a way of life. It teaches you to listen, to express, to respect, to appreciate, to share, to love. It does make you a better person. And without flamenco I wouldn’t be who I am.
When the pandemic started, I was shocked just like everyone else. I went to the studio, one last time, before they closed everything. I imagined that I would stop being surrounded by the energy of other dancers, stop performing… It really crushed me.
Through dancing, I could express myself, through teaching I could connect with people. And I was just standing there alone, looking at myself in the mirror of an empty classroom. I could feel that what I have in front of me is huge. Yet, I squeezed my teeth and I felt that I was ready. To fight. To grow. To give an answer to this: to Dance.
There are hard days, but those are the best days. And the real magic of hard days is that those days give you the biggest strength.
This challenging period showed me the need to connect with flamenco not only dancing, but through other forms too.. And I expressed myself through designing my flamenco clothes. When I make a new choreography, I already see in front of my eyes colors, fabrics, paints. It's part of my flamenco.
When I dance I feel free. And all I have is just being myself in the purest way. Being in the moment. Dance translates my thoughts into feelings and I feel that the deeper I go, the purest feelings I can get out, the truest I will dance.
People don’t dance because they are happy, but because they need to. Like therapy, I encourage you to dance your problems away. Express Yourself. It doesn’t have to be beautiful. It just has to be real. It is always the right time to go and really dance. Dance is magic. It shows your own road to Yourself."